Family Day
by MissJayne
Summary: Several suspicious deaths alert the team to a problem at Bethesda. Not the best time to be babysitting the Gibblets... Some Jibbs, Lily!
1. Prologue

_Thanks to my beta Kristen! I've had a lot of requests for more Jibbs twins, so they have a starring role in this one._

_There are some dark themes in this one, although I personally don't think it's as dark as Shades of Darkness turned out to be. I've tried to stay away from the darkness, but it is there._

_For Jess, who requested that Lily take the twins on a trip somewhere to 'help' her sister. Probably not what you intended, but the plot bunnies were being a little evil…_

Family Day

Chapter 1: Prologue

The waiting room was as crowded as ever. Plastic chairs were arranged in neat lines, only remaining in their original places because someone smart had thought to attach them to the floor. The few wooden tables that dotted the room were not so fortunate, especially the one that was being moved by the toddler.

The garish colors on the walls were supposed to calm the children down, not hype them up. Mary Abbot had never noticed this happen. As far as she could tell, the paint had only been chosen because blood wiped off it easily, thus saving Janitorial a fortune in time and money.

Not that blood was a usual occurrence in the waiting room. Not this particular one, anyway. She had managed to get a job as a receptionist in the worst possible place – the Immunization Clinic at Bethesda. She had picked it because she had correctly assumed that all the parents would be polite and prepared to wait their turn.

But she hadn't counted on the children. They screamed and ran around, with no one controlling them. They played games under her feet when she had to leave the safety of her desk. The military personnel did not attempt to calm their children down.

It did not help that the children were aware they were going to have needles stuck in their arms. At least the babies were fairly quiet. Even if they did start screaming, anxious mothers hushed them quickly. The few older children were the main troublemakers. They ran around as though they owned the place. The doctors and nurses didn't seem to mind this, judging by the smiles they gave to the children. But it annoyed Mary no end.

She had children of her own. Nice, polite children who had been raised well and knew how to behave. Today's children acted as though they were in charge, not the parents. They expected everything to be done for them the moment they demanded it. And the parents fell over backwards to abide by their offspring's orders. The tables had shifted too far.

Mary let her eyes travel around the waiting room again. There were slightly more babies than usual. Most inoculations occurred before the child was a year old, leaving the waiting room more skewed towards younger children, but other children missed jabs or the mothers forgot to take them along. Naturally, the babies often had other siblings, and parents were very happy to bring along the whole family for a routine immunization. It added to the noise and chaos that surrounded this place.

Not to mention the fact they could wander in without an appointment. It might save her on some paperwork, but it meant that some days were exceptionally busy while others were almost silent. Mary longed for the time when someone higher up realized that appointments were the best way to go and reintroduced them.

"Hey."

Mary whirled around to see Commander Kaye standing close by. She smiled at him as he placed a collection of files on her desk. He was a nice doctor, and the children seemed to like him. She would not begrudge them a little happiness.

"Good morning," she greeted him. "More paperwork."

He laughed. "One of these days, you're going to hear a cry of 'Avalanche!' coming from my office," he joked. "You'll be forced to dig me out from under mountains of paper."

Mary found herself chuckling. "We'll tell the children to take one piece of paper each," she countered. "They will take as many as their arms can carry and we will have you out in no time."

They shared a smile as they looked out over the overflowing waiting room. Kaye sighed. "I guess I should try to get some of these people out," he noted, making a move to leave.

"Of course," she agreed, staring out over the small crowd. She had a horrible feeling it was going to get busier in here soon. Her feelings were well known for being accurate, to the stage where doctors coming on duty would ask her for her opinion. It made life a little easier for everyone if they had some kind of warning before every parent in DC bought their child in and demanded that they be seen immediately.

Her eyes tracked Commander Kaye into the nearest room, a small family following him. One of the nurses stopped by her desk and she forced herself to pay attention.

"Can you ring Janitorial?" Angela asked, sounding exhausted. "Baby Summers just threw up all over Room Four."

"Not again," Mary groaned, reaching for the phone. There was always one child that was ill on her shift. On his last three visits, Baby Summers had managed to throw up everywhere. If he ever reappeared again, she was going to make sure Janitorial were on standby. It would save everyone time.

A frantic scream came from Room Six. High-pitched, desperate. Mary guessed it was a mother. She immediately cut the connection to Janitorial, undoubtedly aggravating the poor man who had just answered the phone, and rang for help. Commander Kaye was in that room…

Angela had started sprinting across the waiting room before Commander Kaye had the chance to yell for help. Doctors came out of neighboring rooms and made for the room in question, nurses appeared out of nowhere and joined in the mad dash. The parents in the waiting area looked nervous and clutched their children closer. The children merely looked bewildered.

The phone continued to ring as people piled into the examination room. Mary watched, detached from the situation around her. Why weren't they picking up the phone?

"Hello?" came the standard greeting.

"I'm calling from the Immunization Clinic," she announced breathlessly, not bothering to introduce herself. "We've got another one."


	2. Saturday Morning

_Thanks to my beta Kristen! I know this is going up a little early, but I'm without my usual Internet access at the moment. Normal service will be resumed by the next chapter._

Chapter 2: Saturday Morning

Tony DiNozzo continued to make his paper airplanes. He hated drawing weekend duty, and it was always doubly bad when there was no work to do.

Nothing at all. All their recent paperwork regarding other cases had been completed, they had no current case, and even the cold case files were thin on the ground. His desk was relatively tidy – it didn't look as though someone had placed a bomb on his desk – and his computer was becoming more boring by the minute. He had no food, and the vending machines were suspiciously empty. If he didn't know better, he would have assumed Lily had something to do with it.

But what possible purpose would she have for removing all the food from the vending machines? There was always a reason behind her actions, even though it was not normally obvious for a while. More likely, someone somewhere had mucked up and forgot to replace the food. It wasn't a comforting thought.

He glanced over at Ziva, who was busy toying with a paperclip. Forcing down a shudder, he watched as she unbent it and reshaped it so that she could better conceal it in her hand and still use it as a weapon. She continued to experiment with different shapes as he scanned her desk for food. He couldn't help it; he was hungry after all. And Ziva was always prepared. She would have some food hidden away somewhere…

Although perhaps the Probie would be a better choice to steal food from. The Mossad Officer would happily kill him if she felt her food was in danger, but the Probie would be scared and run away, leaving his food behind for the starving DiNozzo.

He snorted. Watching wildlife documentaries in the small hours was not his smartest idea.

McGee was typing away at his computer. Nothing new there. The main difference was Abby hanging over his shoulder, watching his every move and trying to interfere. The two of them looked uncomfortably close and Abby was laughing at something. Probably some geek thing that no one else would understand, regardless of how long they tried to explain the joke for. It was as though they existed in their own little world, unconcerned about other people.

He wasn't entirely sure why the Goth had decided to sacrifice her Saturday and spend it with them. They didn't have a case, so she had no Forensics to worry about. The computers had not died a horrible death, thereby requiring someone to come in and reset them. There was no real purpose to her presence, except to annoy him.

Not that Abby was annoying. It was simply that the Probie should not be capable of talking to such a sophisticated woman. Abby was intelligent and funny, and McGee was tongue-tied whenever a female walked by. Somehow, the Goth and the Geek had clicked and got on like a house on fire. Which was not natural for either of them.

His eyes passed over the couple who were likely hacking into the Pentagon or somewhere similar. Gibbs' desk was empty. This was incredibly unusual. Gibbs was never ill, never took a vacation day unless Lily showed up (almost definitely on Jenny's orders) and threatened to disembowel him, and he was always punctual. Something serious would have to be going on to keep Gibbs from his appointed place.

Something probably involving the Director. Maybe she had tied the boss to his bed, or they had both had a very late night and slept through their alarm clocks. That would be a very interesting bet to set up…

The elevator doors dinged and Abby squealed at the top of her lungs. Covering his ears on the off chance she decided to repeat her actions, Tony looked away from Gibbs' desk to view the newcomers.

Gibbs, Jenny and two baby twins. The boss had one baby perched on his hip while Jenny carried the other one. The boss was also carrying his boss' briefcase. They were both dressed down for the day, looking nothing like federal agents who could kill with a glare. If he didn't know better, he would have considered them to be just another pair of parents.

"Twins!" Abby squealed, racing over to their side. "Can I hold them? Can I look after them? I'll be really careful and won't let them near anything that could burn through their skin or poison them, I promise. Please?"

Jenny smiled and offered the child in her arms. "I have a lot of paperwork to do," she admitted. "I'm sure Camilla would love to spend some time with you."

"Is she speaking yet?" Abby checked.

Jenny shook her head. "Just the usual baby babble," she admitted. "Hopefully we'll get a word out of her soon."

"As long as it isn't one of the words Aunt Lily is trying to teach them," Gibbs growled, handing Jenny her briefcase before going over to his desk. "Does she even understand the term 'responsible adult'?"

Abby scooped the other twin from Gibbs' arms. "I bet Lily's a good babysitter," she offered.

Gibbs snorted. "Six month old children and military grade explosives should never be mixed."

Tony's eyes widened. "What was she doing with the explosives?"

"Trying to figure out a way to blow up Gibbs' boat," Jenny winced. "I talked her out of it, I think." She gave Gibbs a peck on the cheek before leaving for the safety of her office.

Gibbs glared at his team. Tony understood what he wanted immediately.

"No active cases, boss," he spoke up. "I'm looking into cold cases."

Gibbs turned his glare to Ziva.

"I am working on an old report," the Israeli announced. "Mewburn has decided to appeal, so I thought I would double check the file."

The boss turned to face McGee.

"Trying to improve the computer network speed," the Probie informed the others. "It'll save us time when we have an active case."

Abby beamed as she held the twins. "And I'm babysitting!"

"Going for coffee," Gibbs muttered. "I want a case by the time I get back."

* * *

"Maybe we could ask Lily to kill a Marine?" Ziva David wondered aloud.

McGee stared at her, confused. "Why?"

She shrugged. "To give us a case."

The Israeli seriously disliked forced inactivity. If it was a stakeout or something that required a lot of patience, she could hold herself together, but they had no case to work on at all. It was as though the entire Navy and Marine Corps were aware that they were on duty this weekend, and had decided to put all petty squabbles on hold, control their murderous urges, and avoid anyone else harming them at the same time. It was driving her insane.

A little excitement was needed. Not too much; the twins needed to stay safe. But enough to keep her on her toes. A hostage situation, perhaps, or a corpse to appear that had been dead for a long time so that there would be no immediate danger to the babies. Something that would keep her mind active if not her body. Something to pass the time until Monday morning rolled around and the world decided to go to Hell in a dustcart.

Or was it handcart?

She sighed. The most constructive thing she could think of to do involved practicing her English idioms with someone. A game of Scrabble would be good, but Abby and McGee were busy babysitting. She could not talk to Camilla and Rose because they were not old enough to talk. And Tony would tease her endlessly and refuse to help.

Perhaps she should forget about constructive ideas and focus on spending time with the babies. They were so little and innocent; it was hard to remember that she herself must have been like that a long time ago. Abby was cooing over them, making Ziva wonder if her friend was broody. The twins were extremely cute…

She rose from her chair, intent on joining McGee and Abby, when Gibbs reappeared. Surprised, she fell into her chair. Automatically, she shot a glare in Tony's direction, but he had not noticed her fall. He was completely focused on the file in front of him.

"Case," Gibbs ordered.

"Got something," Tony announced.

Ziva looked at him carefully. It would certainly explain why he had not been paying her as much attention as he usually did. Tony loved finding new cases.

"Six months ago," her partner began. "A baby died of natural causes at Bethesda when attending for routine inoculations. Sounds a bit fishy. I think the parents were involved somehow."

Ziva glanced across at the babies, who were busy crawling across McGee's desk. Who in their right mind would want to hurt a child? Especially the parents. She watched as Rose tried to put a pen in her mouth, and Abby intercepted it before the child could put herself in any more danger.

If someone had really murdered this child, they would have to be truly twisted.


	3. Red Alert

_Thanks to my beta Kristen! The case will start to heat up soon, but not quite yet..._

Chapter 3: Red Alert

Timothy McGee watched as Camilla tried to put another pen in her mouth.

What was it about babies and small objects? Did they think they could tell everything apart by putting things in their mouths, or was it just that they were curious? It didn't help that Rose managed to time everything she did with something her sister did. It was impossible to watch them both at the same time. How Gibbs and the Director coped without eyes in the backs of their heads was beyond him.

Although maybe the Director had better insight than most. After all, she was a twin herself, and she was used to reacting to her sister's behavior at the drop of a hat. And Gibbs had been a parent before, not to mention his famous gut. The twins were probably very well looked after at home.

His arms shot out and he caught Rose before she hit the ground. Jeez! Maybe leaving them on top of his desk was a bad idea, especially if they thought they could crawl straight off the edges. It didn't help that they had already managed to spill coffee all over his keyboard. Judging by their recent actions, he was starting to suspect that they were taking more after their Aunt than their parents. Although Lily was unlikely to spill hot liquids on electrical equipment, but still.

Gibbs came over and scooped up Camilla. "It's easier to look after one," he hinted, resting the baby on his hip. Camilla grinned and started babbling.

Abby beamed. "You two look perfect together," she admitted.

Gibbs raised his eyebrows in response.

"You do!" she protested. "She knows her Daddy! I need to take a picture of this."

As she rummaged in her bag, Gibbs went back to his seat and placed Camilla carefully on his desk. The twin did not look happy at being separated from her sister, but recovered quickly and started to explore her new environment. McGee smiled softly to himself.

"How is this a case?" Ziva argued, a short distance away. McGee sighed internally. Could Tony and Ziva ever stop arguing? There were children about!

"Dead baby, _Zee-vah_," Tony retorted. "I think that warrants an investigation."

"But there has already been an investigation," she pointed out. "Agent Balboa closed the case because Ducky concluded the baby died of natural causes. Ergo, there is nothing to investigate."

"Babies don't just drop dead of natural causes," Tony countered. "There's always a reason."

"It is a tragedy," Ziva noted. "And anyone can die from natural causes. If I do not kill you first, it is likely that _you _will die from natural causes. Would you like me to reopen old wounds for your family six months after your death by claiming you were murdered?"

"Seeing as you will be the one to kill me, I'm sure whoever I leave behind will be thrilled at someone reinvestigating my untimely demise," Tony shot back.

"Enough," Gibbs warned, one eye on Camilla and the other eye on his warring agents. "Keep looking into it."

McGee watched as Ziva sighed and Tony grinned. At least this would break the monotony.

* * *

Gibbs continued to observe his daughter as she played on his desk. When apart, it was much easier to control the twins. Together, they turned into miniature versions of Lily and created as much havoc as possible. Apart, they were just sweet little children.

They were going to be unholy terrors as adults, he suspected. With a lot of luck, they would grow out of this phase and turn out to be more like Jenny. Two little Lily's running around would be enough to do his head in. Lily might need to be banished for a little while.

The only snag being that Jenny was still living in her sister's apartment. And Lily was a useful babysitter. She worked odder hours than they did, meaning she was likely to be around at 0200 when an urgent case came up and Jenny was out of the country at a conference. If she was too busy, she could always find someone else to look after them – with options ranging from her CIA partner, her boss, her fiancé, or her Great Aunt. Someone somewhere was always available.

Even if she herself was a bad role model. It was incredibly strange: she was an angel around her own son, but she was happy to be evil around her nieces. Someone needed to have a serious word with her about how impressionable young children were.

He certainly was not that stupid. If he told her, she would smirk and find a way to get her own back, on top of increasing her campaign. Jenny firmly believed that her sister was going through a 'stage' and everything would be fine once she worked her way through it. The only other person Lily tended to listen to on a regular basis was her fiancé, but Gibbs could not see himself having that discussion with a man he barely knew. Lily didn't even listen to her own boss, which put Arbourne out of the question.

He was stuck with hoping that Jenny was right and Lily would grow out of her stage. Some time soon would be nice. Before she did any permanent damage. And before he gave in to the urge to throttle her and leave her dead body in her apartment.

It would be justifiable homicide. He would easily be able to get hold of a dozen character witnesses for both himself and for Lily. If the DA had ever run into the redhead, he would probably not even bother to prosecute.

BOOM

He jumped to his feet, instinctively shielding one daughter and looking over to the other. The explosion sounded as though it had come from upstairs – from Jenny's office. He was torn. Should he go upstairs to find Jenny, or should he continue to protect his children?

Abby solved the problem for him, snatching up both twins and heading towards the stairwell for safety. He grabbed his gun and ran for the catwalk, his team close behind. What was going on?

As his feet touched the catwalk himself, the door to MTAC opened and Jenny rushed out. He pulled her close to him for a brief second, delighted that she was okay.

"Cynthia's not in," Jenny told them, wriggling out of his arms and taking control. "My office should have been empty."

Gibbs breathed a quick sigh of relief, which was rapidly followed by concern again. Who could get a bomb into Jenny's office? And why would they want to hurt her?

The redhead was slowly becoming more murderous. He could see it in her eyes. "Jen?" he whispered.

"Name one person who would consider it amusing to blow up my office," she hissed back.

He stifled a groan. Lily.

* * *

Lily tapped her foot impatiently as the elevator ascended. If anyone other than Jenny had called, she would have told them where to stick their poxy job. If it had been Arbourne, she would have returned to the CIA for long enough to eviscerate another squirrel before returning to her day off.

Normally, she hated days off. She hated them so much that she swapped with her sister and did her job for a few days. Being told to take a break had never sat well with her. She liked to be out in the field, blowing things up, causing havoc and having fun. Sitting in her apartment, watching baseball on her television had never been something she liked. Now, if the baseball players were playing with a grenade instead of a ball she might be more interested…

She had been halfway to the zoo when Jenny had called and demanded her presence with no further explanation. This trip had been planned for weeks. And not by her either. She had given her son the opportunity to be more grown up and sort the entire trip out by himself. He had been doing her proud: booking the tickets over the phone, working out the route she needed to drive, calculating the amount of money they needed to take for food, snacks and drinks, and generally sorting everything out.

And Jenny had ruined it all.

She had been careful not to disappoint Jasper too much, instead offering to steal Camilla and Rose away and take them to the zoo as well. Her son had taken everything in his stride. It dismayed her that he was so used to her messing their schedules around. Maybe her late husband had been right and she should have given up her crazy job to bring up their son. But someone had to provide for the two of them, and someone had to get revenge for his death as well.

As the doors opened, she stepped off and took Jasper's arm. There was always the chance she could leave him somewhere while she screamed her frustrations at her sister. This had better be extremely important – end of the world important. The only way Jenny was going to be out of trouble was if World War Three was about to break out.

She walked into LJ's area, not failing to notice the glare he sent in her direction. It forced her to re-evaluate her plan. This could be all his fault, which would give her the perfect opportunity to smash his precious boat to smithereens. Either that, or they thought she was responsible for doing something.

She had no intention of hurting the twins. Could they just accept that and move on?

"Been playing with explosives lately?" Jenny asked, appearing behind her.

She shrugged, careful not to commit herself. "I always play with explosives. You'll have to be more specific."

"In my office?"

Lily could feel the eyes on LJ's team upon her. A brief spark of panic rose inside her; she crushed it immediately. "Explain."

Jenny glared at her. "Bomb. My office. You explain."

The spark of panic was harder to extinguish this time. "I haven't been in your office since I put that spider in your desk drawer," she admitted. "I promise on Jasper."

Jenny looked confused; Lily didn't blame her. She honestly had not been behind this bomb, although she had a funny feeling she knew who was… The same person who had tried to fake Jenny's death the previous month.

LJ was the only one to voice everyone's thoughts. "If you didn't plant the bomb, then who did?"


	4. An Idea

_Thanks to my beta Kristen! My head is stuck in the current Jibbs fic and rereading this has just given me a headache._

Chapter 4: An Idea

Ziva David had found herself looking after two baby twins and a nine year old. This was not good. She was an assassin, not a babysitter for young children!

This was all McGee and Abby's fault. The two computer experts had decided to take a closer look at the case Tony had uncovered and were busy searching through Bethesda records. Ziva had no idea what they hoped to find, but trusted their judgment. They were capable of making an informed decision based on the evidence before them.

Unlike her partner, who was still clinging to the notion that this had to be a murder investigation. He had no evidence to support his theory though! He did not even have a gut feeling; she automatically discounted Tony's gut feelings because they were nowhere near as accurate as Gibbs'. With no proof, he was just planning to reopen an old wound for a family.

She was more flexible. If something changed, she would accept it and move on. If McGee and Abby could provide further information that made murder more likely, she would dive right into the case. In the meantime, there was nothing for her to do but look after the children.

Some of her earliest memories were of her in Mossad: hiding in her father's office, being shown how to handle a gun by an Officer, trying to sneak up on older people, and generally just being as grown up as she could. Whereas the twins were too young to understand where they were, Jasper was being as much of a child as possible. He had spent some time running around the squad room in circles, and was now playing silly little games with his cousins. The twins were basking in the attention he gave them and it was clear how much he cared for them.

She ruffled his hair softly as he came closer to her, and he shot her a grin in response. "Can we go to the zoo?" he asked.

Ziva found herself a little lost. "We need to stay in the building," she told him.

"But we were going to the zoo," he pointed out. "Where's my mom?"

She shrugged. "I think Gibbs took her downstairs so that he could… discuss something with her."

"You mean yell at her." The boy did not seem fussed by this. "If she says she didn't do something, then she didn't do it. She says you should own up to anything you did wrong."

"What if she does not feel she did something wrong?" Ziva inquired. "Should she own up then?"

"She wouldn't have sworn on me if she did it," he countered swiftly. "It's not like her."

"But it is like her to plant bombs."

"She wouldn't do anything to hurt Aunt Jenny," the boy professed. "Even if it would annoy LJ."

Ziva did not know what to say. She had a feeling this was going to go around in circles for some time.

"Got something," McGee announced.

She smiled to herself. Perhaps this would make Jasper forget about his mother for a little while longer. Gibbs was probably performing a few acts of torture on the redhead in order to make her confess.

"Tell us, Probilicious," Tony ordered. Jasper giggled at this.

"I've found eleven other suspicious baby deaths in the Immunization Clinic at Bethesda in the last two years," McGee reported.

Ziva whistled softly. That was a bit high. Tony might have stumbled upon something after all.

* * *

Abby was not surprised that Tony had stumbled across something. After all, he was a mini-Gibbs, and if Gibbs himself was allowed to have gut feelings, then so was Tony. Anyway, Gibbs had left his senior field agent in charge when he was in Mexico, so it was clear he supported his agent.

However, she was surprised that it had taken her and McGee so little time to connect the deaths. There was a pattern, but no one had been looking. Everyone had just written these babies off as unfortunate accidents. In reality, there was a madman hiding somewhere.

They would have to be mad to want to hurt a little baby. The Goth was aware that spending time with the twins was making her broody, but she didn't mind. Considering how often Mommy and Daddy were at work, she was happy to babysit on short notice. Although they did have a habit of using Lily more…

Lily was their aunt though; they were supposed to spend time with her. She might not be the best role model in the world, but she cared for her nieces and would do everything in her power to keep them safe. And on top of everything else, she believed in ghosts! Anyone who believed in ghosts could not be evil at heart. Lily was just a little misguided sometimes and she could be scary, but she was a nice person. A very nice person.

It was a pity Gibbs did not believe that she had nothing to do with the bomb. Although the redhead was an obvious suspect – given her love for explosives and the time she had blown herself up on purpose – if she claimed she didn't do it, then she didn't do it. Abby had never known Lily lie to her. She would admit straight out if there was something she couldn't say, instead of creating a pack of lies to cover national security.

"We should send someone undercover," Abby decided. "Someone can find out what is going on."

Tony snorted. "Sure, and we've all had enough medical training to pass as doctors."

"How about a receptionist?" McGee piped up. "They don't need any medical training. We could sneak someone in that way."

"The babies are dying of something," Tony countered. "Whoever goes in would have to be familiar enough with children to spot any suspicious behavior and prevent any further deaths. None of us fall into that category."

"We could call Ducky," Ziva suggested, looking up from blowing raspberries on Rose's chest. "He could go undercover for us. He could know what to look for."

"Half of Bethesda knows him though," Tony pointed out. "It would be obvious what he was doing there, especially when the word gets out that he's a medical examiner."

"Do you have a better idea, Einstein?" McGee asked.

Tony fell silent.

"You don't need Ducky," a little voice piped up. Abby turned to face Jasper, who appeared deep in thought.

"So how do we get in?" she prompted.

"Easy." He looked at her and grinned. "We have babies." He pointed at his cousins. "And they need jabs."

* * *

Tony DiNozzo was not happy to have been picked as the one to suggest to Gibbs that they use his own children as bait. Abby would have been a better option – Gibbs would never hurt her. Or Ziva, who would be able to block any attack Gibbs tried and run away. Or even Jasper himself, for coming up with this insane idea.

He had to admit it made some kind of sense. No one would be suspicious of another parent bringing children in for inoculations. They could bug parts of the clinic, depending on who was chosen to go. Or Gibbs could go himself, so that he could not only protect his children but also terrify someone into confessing. It would save them a lot of work and time.

Child murderers were typically cowards. If there really was one hiding in this clinic somewhere, the mere sight of Gibbs should scare them into admitting all. Especially if Gibbs was looking after his children at the same time.

Another thought popped into his head. Jenny could go along as well! Abby would be able to coo over 'Mommy and Daddy' for a while, the boss could work with his old partner again, and they would look like a real family because they were one. Even better, they could leave Lily in MTAC to oversee the whole situation, where she would be out of the way but accessible in an emergency.

Although perhaps she was more likely to cause an emergency, especially where the boss was concerned. She really did have a habit of aggravating him as much as possible. But with the twins around, there was a chance she would pull herself together.

He continued to muse as Gibbs stormed back into the squad room. Evidently, Lily had not cracked under pressure and admitted to the bomb. He wasn't sure what was worse: Lily holding out, or someone else being responsible for the explosion. Even if Lily had nothing to do with it, she must have a pretty good idea of who it really was. She wasn't a big bad CIA agent for nothing.

"Erm, boss?" He was loathe to attract Gibbs' attention when he was in a mood like this, but it really was necessary.

Gibbs turned a very dangerous glare on him. Tony gulped and took a few steps back.

"We have an idea for how to get into Bethesda, to get more information on the killer."

"Do it," Gibbs ordered, heading over to Ziva's desk and removing a twin. Tony didn't mind; if it calmed the boss down, it was a good thing.

"We, erm, need to borrow the twins," he admitted.

Gibbs stopped mid-pace and turned to glare at him again. "Not happening," he warned.

"But Gibbs!" Abby joined in. "You could go with them and keep them safe! We just need to see the setup in there and possibly sneak a few bugs in as well."

"No," Gibbs repeated, sitting down and bouncing the twin on his knee. Tony wished he could tell the two of them apart; it was like having Jenny and Lily present at the same time without the boss, making it impossible to guess which was which.

"They wouldn't be in any danger?" Tony tried.

Gibbs shook his head. "Find another way," he ordered.


	5. A Woman of Action

_Thanks to my beta Kristen! I need sleep so badly right now..._

Chapter 5: A Woman Of Action

Jenny had never been so furious in all her life.

Except the time when Lily had set off all the sprinklers in the Navy Yard last month. And the time she had released bugs all over her own house. And the time she had shaved the head of an important politician when he had fallen asleep in her presence.

Actually, she always seemed to be mad at her sister. But it went away so quickly that she forgot about all the little things she did. Lily had a knack of looking innocent and professing her sorrow, before turning around and doing something else. And Jenny could never remain mad at her for long; it was simply impossible. They were sisters, they shared a close bond, and she would happily take a bullet to keep Lily safe.

Even if she would probably be the one to fire that bullet first. Sometimes she wanted to shake some sense into her sister, but she was aware that it wouldn't work. Nothing seemed to get through her thick skin, although recently…

Something was bothering her. It flickered in the corners on her eyes when things were quiet. Something she was not talking about, or even hinting at. Lily was losing sleep at night, which was odd. Usually, she slept soundly, worn out by working so hard during the day. But now she was struggling by on a few hours a night and even those were only achieved by sleeping pills. Lily kept secrets well – Jenny had never been in any doubt about this – and this secret was so surreptitious that it was difficult to know it even existed.

The little things gave it away. Lily was never stressed enough to stop her sleeping, her eyes had become more guarded than usual, and she seemed wary of something. Trying to pry it out of her would be unattainable though, so Jenny had not bothered. Lily would open up in her own time. It would probably take something major to crack her, but it was better than dreaming up tortures and threats. They would only make Lily clam up tighter.

"How dare you blow up my office!" she yelled, finally unable to hold on to her temper any longer. "I don't care what you do in the CIA halls, but this is MY agency!"

"Hold your horses!" Lily protested, taking several steps back. "I didn't blow anything up. I swear! Nothing. Not since I blew up Arbourne's car last week, but he was asking for it."

Jenny glared at her errant sister. This particular glare was capable of scaring Jethro, but it bounced off Lily's back. She knew exactly which trick she was trying: own up to something else so they could argue over that instead. By the time they had blown up at each other, she would have forgotten what she was trying to chew her out for.

"I do not care about your boss' car," she warned, hanging onto what little control she had left. "We are talking about my office."

"I did not blow up your office," Lily denied. "Honestly! I wouldn't do that to you. I might blow up LJ's desk at some point, but not your office! Where would I go when I get kicked out of the CIA? It doesn't make any sense for me to do this."

Jenny glanced around the conference room. Lily had a point. She had nothing to gain from doing this. It wouldn't even annoy Jethro half as much as it had annoyed her.

Something was off. And it was probably Lily's ability to lie.

* * *

Gibbs did not want to enter the conference room. He could hear raised voices – the sisters almost screaming at each other. Jenny was accusing Lily of being reckless and stupid, while Lily was denying having anything to do with the bomb.

And she wasn't doing a good job of it either.

Although she had refused to admit to placing the bomb during his earlier discussion with her in Autopsy, she had not offered up any other form of explanation for why Jenny's office had been targeted, or how someone had smuggled a bomb past security. Which was very unlike her. If she was completely innocent, she would have a thousand and one suggestions for what could have happened.

And, far more tellingly, she would be going after whoever had done this with everything in her arsenal. When Jenny had been hiding her stalker, Lily had thrown every last piece of effort into simultaneously protecting her sister and trying to stop the stalker before he could do any more damage. She had even gone to the extent of faking her death in an attempt to force his hand.

Now, she was doing nothing except argue. Which meant she was either thoroughly guilty, or she knew who was responsible and was protecting them. Neither option was good.

He hated having to interrupt the sisters when they were arguing, especially as they had a tendency to turn their fury straight onto whoever got in their way. It was a terrifying experience and he had been forced to intervene more times than he cared to remember. Usually, it was right before they started throwing things at each other.

Shuddering slightly, he forced himself to open the door as fast as possible. The sooner he entered, the sooner he could leave.

The sisters glared at him the moment he stepped through the door, but he ignored it. He had other things to worry about right now. Like persuading Jenny to agree to something she was likely to veto.

"Think we've got a serial killer at Bethesda Immunization Clinic," he began, not waiting to be given orders. "Need to use the twins as bait."

"Not happening," Jenny immediately demanded. "They are not being put in any kind of danger."

Gibbs was not happy about it either, but had finally come to the conclusion that there was no other way to go about this. "You can come with me; all we need to do is give them their jabs. They need 'em anyway, and we might trap a serial killer in the process."

"No," Jenny repeated. "I do not care if you send a Marine task force with us. They are not being placed in any danger."

He watched as Lily rolled her eyes. "If you two are just going to argue, I'll disappear," she pointed out. "You can scream at me later. Oh, and just in case you didn't catch it earlier, I did not blow up anyone's office."

Gibbs ignored her. Maybe Ziva could torture the truth out of her later. "It won't even take an hour," he pointed out. "We only need to stick a few bugs around the place."

"What part of 'no' do you not understand?" Jenny queried. "It is not happening."

They stormed out onto the catwalk, Lily trailing behind them, looking bored. "We won't even be undercover!" Gibbs protested.

"They are children!" Jenny objected. "They are not able to make decisions for themselves. As parents, it's our job to keep them safe."

"They will be safe!"

Jenny placed her eye to the retinal scanner and let them into MTAC. As the doors closed behind them, Gibbs was dimly aware that Lily had not followed.

* * *

Timothy McGee continued to stare at his computer screen.

Gibbs had decided a short while ago that the only way to lure their killer out would involve using the twins as bait. When he had left to attempt to sell the idea to the Director, Abby had stolen the twins back, and they were now crawling all over his desk.

He had never thought looking after a child would involve so much effort and energy. They took up his complete attention, especially as they were both mischievous little monkeys. They had figured out how to unplug his computer so that the power would suddenly die, and were having a lot of fun with this. As much as he wanted to place them on Tony's desk, he knew the other agent would not look after the twins.

Anyway, Abby was trying to take care of them. He just wished she would do it elsewhere. He was trying to see if any other deaths could be connected to the ones they had already identified, work out how the connection had been missed, and see if there were any common staff on duty at all the necessary times. If his computer died one more time, he was tempted to borrow Gibbs' desk for a little while.

It wasn't as though he was present. The loud argument between Gibbs and the Director had made it clear that Gibbs did not have permission yet, and he was unlikely to return any time soon. Gibbs might be the father of the twins, but the Director was their mother and had an equal say in what happened to them. It was obvious that the Director did not want to risk her children, and Gibbs wanted that permission.

Lily appeared at the foot of his desk and he turned his gaze to her for a few moments. She looked tired, but otherwise in one piece. He suspected that was all that mattered to her. She was focusing on her nieces, catching one deftly as she threw herself of the desk.

"Rose," she mock-growled. "What have I told you about injuring yourself when I'm around? Silly Daddy will get angry at me."

Tony chuckled from his desk. "I think that'll be the least of your worries," he suggested.

Lily grinned back. "A little bird told me that my nieces need some jabs. I fancy a trip over to Bethesda. Anyone object to that?"

"You mean you want to use them as bait," Ziva corrected.

"Who? Me?" Lily smirked. "I am merely being a caring aunt."

Tony stood up so fast that McGee thought he would fall over. "You can't take them on your own," he pointed out. "They need a father. I'll come along as well."

McGee snorted.

"Laugh it up, McLoser," Tony growled. "The twins even look a bit like me."

"You're right," Lily admitted. "They need a father figure."

Tony reached for his gun.

"Agent McGee." She smiled sweetly at him. "How are your parenting skills?"

He found himself gulping for air. "You should probably take Tony," he advised.

"Nah," she scoffed. "Leave your gun; you won't be needing it."

She stuck out a hand and Jasper came running. McGee found himself carrying one twin while Lily took the other and her son.

"Won't be long!" she called back into the squad room as the elevator doors closed.


	6. Hospital Hatred

_Thanks to my beta Kristen! I love the way everyone seems to think that Lily will be in trouble for 'borrowing' the twins. She's going to be in much more trouble for something else..._

Chapter 6: Hospital Hatred

Lily tried to hold her nerve as she sat in the uncomfortable plastic chair. She was fully aware of the dangerous game she was playing and how badly this could end if she messed something up.

McGee had been exceptionally helpful. He had constructed a matrix of the deaths, showing hidden links. After careful examination, they had determined that there was likely to be another death in a few hours. It might be pushing her luck as far as Lily was concerned, but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Not when she was a mother herself.

Camilla sat in her lap, while McGee hung onto Rose and Jasper sat next to her. Both the twins seemed to be startled by the garish colors in the waiting room, and Lily was debating how many people she would need to murder to cover the walls in blood. At least the color would be better. The rest of the room was buzzing; it was a Saturday lunch time and everyone in the world was free then. No need to worry about taking time off work when you could spare a few hours at the weekend.

There was another reason she disliked being here: hospitals were starting to unnerve her slightly. She had never liked them as a child, not after her mother's death, but recently she seemed to be more and more injured. She disliked being prodded at by doctors and given drugs to take. The drugs might ease her pain, but they also fogged her mind, making it hard for her to think. She only took them when she had to – usually when she was fighting unconsciousness. If she never saw a hospital again, she would be extremely happy.

However, in her line of work, she was starting to spend more time inside hospitals than in the real world. She loved her job, but she was starting to question how much long she could continue and survive. Her body was not as young as it used to be and did not recover as easily. And she played deadly games, where one wrong move could lead to a painful, drawn-out death. As much as she tried to pretend she was alone in the world, she had to think of Jasper as well. And Alex, her fiancé, and her sister. None of them would be happy if she died.

Jasper slipped his hand into hers and she smothered a smile. He was an astute lad and always picked up on her moods, even if he didn't understand them. He just accepted her the way she was, which was unusual for her nowadays. Everyone had either heard of her and feared her, or had no idea of her existence and walked past her without a second glance. It was a strange place to be. And the people who knew her tried to change her.

Arbourne tried to control her actions more. Darlene tried to tip her over the edge. Charlie, her partner, tried to persuade her to think through her actions. Jenny tried to stop her from carrying out some of her more outrageous ideas. LJ simply tried to stop her. Even LJ's team tried to stop her from causing as much havoc as she would like.

Alex and Jasper seemed to be the only ones left on her side. Jasper loved her unconditionally and Alex accepted the way she was. He even accepted her reluctance to move on from Brian's death. She was determined not to marry Alex until she had located and killed the person who had hired the hit man to murder her first husband. She felt she couldn't move on without revenge.

And Alex accepted that. He let her plot in the shadows, while holding her hand and cracking jokes. He knew there was a dark side to her that would never be appeased, no matter what happened.

She took a death breath as someone called out "Shepard". It was show time.

* * *

Abby looked up at MTAC. She did not spend much time in there, mainly because her lab was far more comfortable, and it had everything she could possibly want in it. Except a Caf-Pow machine, but she was working on that. And a Scanning Electron Microscope, but Jenny had informed her that if she could slot it into the budget somewhere, she would.

She liked new equipment. It was fun to have a new member of her 'team', and she enjoyed learning how to use another machine. Especially something as interesting as an SEM. Not many people had one, and she would treasure it. She would explain to everyone that passed how it worked and be able to provide both faster and more accurate results for everyone. It would be a good addition for everyone.

Although it would help if everyone was still talking when her new toy eventually appeared. Mommy and Daddy were still holed up inside MTAC and were probably still arguing. She was guessing this because neither of them had stormed out yet, and it was unlikely they would just stop fighting and remain in the same room. They were both private and stubborn people and they needed their space every now and then.

She didn't mind them having their space, as long as they were still together at the end of everything. After the whole stalker debacle, it seemed they had learnt their lesson and were talking again, but she was aware just how quickly they could explode at each other. Someone needed to remind them that they were perfect together and they loved each other. Sometimes, these things could get lost in the chaos of the world around them.

"We should go up and calm them down," she announced to the others. "They need to kiss and make up, and it will never happen without our help."

Tony laughed. "I don't have a problem with them 'kissing and making up', but I think that will happen a lot quicker if we leave them alone for a while. There's no one else to disturb them and they don't have to worry about any children. I bet they will walk out of MTAC in a few hours with big grins on their faces."

"Nonsense," Ziva piped up. "Jenny will kill Gibbs before she leaves. We will have to clear up the mess."

"Jenny would never kill Gibbs!" Abby objected, horrified at the thought.

"No, because Gibbs would kill Jenny," Tony countered.

"No, neither of them would kill the other," Abby continued. "They love each other."

"Doesn't mean anything nowadays," Tony muttered.

Abby punched him in the arm. "Don't say that!" she ordered. "I think we should interfere."

"We should stay out of it," Ziva added. "They are adults; they can solve problems without us holding their hands."

Abby sighed, but settled back into McGee's chair. They weren't going to stop her worrying though…

* * *

Jasper smiled as he watched the doctor. He had introduced himself as Commander Kaye, and seemed friendly enough.

His mom was still nervous though, so Jasper focused on keeping Kaye's attention from her. It would give her more of a chance to do whatever she wanted to. Jasper did not know the plan and didn't want to either. He trusted his mom to do the right thing and would do anything to help her. If he smiled at this man when he really felt something was off, Mom could do her job and all would be right with the world.

He nestled closer to McGee. There was no chance of him calling the agent 'Dad', but he had a different surname from his mother anyway so it wouldn't matter. Especially with all the 'broken families' that Great Aunt April moaned on about when he was over there. Mom always rolled her eyes and pretended not to hear a word whenever this topic was bought up. Either that, or she reminded Great Aunt April of all the early deaths and subsequent re-marriages that seemed to run in the family.

Jasper had never considered his family to be normal, and he doubted it ever would be. Death seemed to lurk around every corner, and he knew it would not change when he grew up. At least he did not plan to follow his mother's footsteps into the CIA. He had no idea what he wanted to be, but as long as he was not a CIA agent, he did not mind.

He watched carefully as the Commander laid out all the vaccines. There were four of them for each baby and the Commander was being very careful with them. McGee looked uncomfortable with Rose in his arms, making Jasper want to hold her himself. He remembered being present for their last set of injections, when his cousins almost screamed the place down. For the moment, Mom was keeping Camilla calm, while Rose was starting to realize what might be about to happen.

Commander Kaye smiled nicely and looked at McGee. "Let's deal with Rose first," he offered.

McGee looked even more awkward; Jasper fought not to giggle. It wasn't as though Rose was going to eat his head or something! She was just a baby.

BOOM

The explosion rocked the room slightly. Both babies immediately started screaming at the tops of their lungs, while Jasper looked to his mother for guidance. This was not good.


	7. Into Trouble

_Thanks to my beta Kristen! Sorry it's slightly late..._

Chapter 7: Into Trouble

Tony DiNozzo was not a happy man. He would have been a much better choice than McGee. No one would ever believe the Probie had slept with a woman like Lily and that could blow the whole operation.

And she needed someone who could provide real backup, not merely fall over his own feet if something went wrong. As it was, she was out in the field with two children under the age of one and another child who had only recently turned nine. If she needed to make a sudden move for her gun, she could have to put down two children, hide Jasper under a table, kick McGee out of the way, and then react. It would simply take too much time for her to be effective.

Maybe he should have followed her to the hospital, or perhaps he should have knocked McGee over on the race to the elevators. He didn't even know what her plan was, although it couldn't involve the useless Probie. She hadn't taken any electronic equipment with her so she wasn't going to bug the place. She had only taken the twins and her son. And a pointless lump of a Probationary Field Agent.

Ziva did not seem concerned about this at all. Gibbs didn't even know she had left and taken the twins. If Gibbs knew about it, he would probably be halfway to Bethesda in the flash of an eye, ready to rip Lily limb from limb and rescue his children from her evil clutches.

He had no idea what Jenny would do and he really didn't want to find out firsthand. If they were lucky, Lily would return soon and they would never mention this incident again. If Jenny and Gibbs never found out about it, they would not be able to complain.

Especially as they would undoubtedly expect him to have stopped Lily somehow. Like _that_ was ever going to happen. The woman would probably not stop with a bullet in her head; merely turn into one of the living dead and continue her mission to create chaos and destruction on a large scale. She didn't exactly have a 'stop' button.

"Why would she consider McGee over me?" he whined at Ziva. Perhaps another woman – if his crazy ninja Mossad chick could ever be considered a woman – might have a better insight.

"Because you scream 'cop' and he screams 'computer geek'," Ziva suggested.

"So what does Lily scream then?" he asked, slightly confused.

Ziva grinned. "Danger. And in order to counter danger, it is best to have someone unassuming next to it. Ergo, if she takes McGee, she appears to be less dangerous and our killer will overlook her."

"She's got three children with her," Tony pointed out. "Doesn't that make her appear less dangerous?"

"Who has three children with her?" came a familiar voice behind him.

Wincing, he turned around to face Jenny. "Erm, Lily?" he offered.

"And where has my charming sister taken three children?" Jenny growled.

He knew he couldn't lie to her. "Bethesda."

"And you didn't think to stop her?"

He rolled his eyes. "I didn't think you'd like it if I shot her," he flippantly replied, expecting a head slap.

It didn't come. "When she shows up again, make it very clear to her that she is dead," Jenny warned, reaching for her now chirping cell phone. "Shepard," she answered.

The squad room fell silent for a few moments. Gibbs appeared behind Jenny and looked at her carefully.

The Director hung up. "There's been an explosion at Bethesda," she informed them, her expression making clear she had an idea who the culprit might be.

* * *

Ziva David was pleased to note that everyone seemed to be walking wounded. At least the explosion had happened in a hospital and medical support would have been immediately on hand.

This was not her first explosion in a hospital. She had always felt it to be one of the most cowardly places to attack. People came to hospitals for medical treatment because they were ill, not to be blown up. At least it appeared that this particular bomb had been incredibly weak.

Janitorial were already patching the place up again. Children were calm and quiet, while adults appeared slightly shaken, although it was not surprising. They were used to explosions happening in combat, not in DC on a Saturday lunch time. And certainly not with their own children around.

She caught a Captain who was walking away from the waiting room. "NCIS," she told him. "Could you tell me what happened?"

The Captain smiled. "Looks as though a gas pipe burst. Nothing serious. No one was actually hurt – just a few scrapes and bruises when people fell over in shock. Normal service has already been resumed, although we are sweeping the rest of the hospital on the off chance this was an attack."

Ziva caught sight of a familiar redhead sitting patiently in the waiting room. "I doubt this was an attack," she told the Captain.

She moved past him, keeping focused on her target. Lily was sitting in one of the plastic chairs, holding onto one baby, while McGee held the other. Jasper was sitting on the floor at their feet. His eyes were observing the workmen on the other side of the room. No member of the party appeared to be injured in any way, which was a good sign.

The bad part was that Jenny was going to explode when they returned to the Navy Yard. And Gibbs' reaction was unknown. He was behind her somewhere, questioning other members of staff. When he realized how much danger Lily had placed his children in, Ziva suspected there would be a murder in full view of a hundred witnesses.

Tony came up behind her. "Ignore her," he hissed.

Ziva whirled around. "But she did it!" she protested.

"I know that," he whispered. "But if our murderer is here, we don't want him to know that we're onto him. Hauling Lily out of here in handcuffs will look incredibly suspicious, especially as Jasper will throw a fit and we'll have to drag him out. Everyone in this room will come to her defense. Keep quiet, and we can deal with her later."

The Israeli rolled her eyes. "Fine, but I am doing this under protest."

He stared at her.

"How did I mix that one up?" she asked.

"You didn't. I just didn't know you understood that term."

"Abby taught it to me," she admitted. "Although I do not get much chance to use it with Gibbs around."

Tony snorted as he moved away. "Not much chance to protest with Gibbs around."

The familiar headslap resounded round the room. "Don't bother, DiNozzo," Gibbs warned.

* * *

Gibbs was past furious. If his children were not in the building, he would have ripped Lily's head off by now.

Although he was currently trying to come up with exceedingly painful ways he could torture her. It was a fun mental exercise and would hopefully allow him to hang on to his self-restraint for a little while longer. He was a Marine: he would not crack so easily. He could control his temper around his agents. Anyway, if he started screaming at Lily, she would simply lean back in his chair and smirk.

He had only just arrived back in the squad room after taking numerous statements from various people. He didn't see much of a point in it – it was obvious who was behind the 'gas leak'. But he was going to do things by the book before dragging Lily down to Autopsy and locking her in a drawer for a few hours where she could do no harm. Jenny was unlikely to stand in his way either, given the explosion in her office earlier that morning.

As he had entered the squad room, Ziva and Tony in tow, the first thing he had noticed was that McGee had returned. His gaze had immediately swept the room to locate Lily sitting in his chair, keeping the twins occupied. His children were babbling away on her knee while she tried to explain exactly how to disembowel a pig. Part of him knew that she was doing it simply to annoy him – being fully aware that his children could not understand a word she was saying – but another part of him wanted to kill her for introducing his children to her world.

He could never understand how she crawled under his skin and continued to irritate him. He wasn't even sure why she did it most of the time. It just seemed her natural reaction to protecting her sister, and he couldn't blame her. He didn't want to see Jenny come to any harm and he had no intention of hurting her. If Lily's minor campaign against him made her feel more secure, he would leave her to her own devices.

Although she really had gone too far this time. Blowing up Bethesda?! Her own boss was going to kill her when he found out about this. It didn't matter that no one had been seriously hurt; what mattered was the principle. She was not supposed to operate on US soil at all. Yet she often and fragrantly violated that rule. The only reason she had not been fired already was because she was too useful to the CIA.

"I admit that was my bomb," Lily piped up when he stopped in front of her and fixed his best glare on his face. It didn't make a difference; she kept her attention focused on her nieces. "It was remote detonated."

"Give me one good reason I don't arrest you right now," he ordered.

"Because I'll resist arrest," she grinned, her attention still elsewhere. "And I bought you a little present."

The idea of a present did not cheer him up. The last present she had given him was a dead rat that she thought might have been infected with the plague.

She carefully placed an evidence bag down on his desk. There looked to be eight vials inside, as well as a few unused needles.

"From the Immunization Clinic," she answered his unspoken question. "I needed a small distraction to grab everything and simultaneously preserve the chain of evidence. I know how much Abby goes on about that."

"No you don't," Gibbs reminded her.

"Well, I know how much Arbourne goes on about it, and I figured Abby would be annoyed with me if I put my own fingerprints on the vials," she corrected herself.

He continued to glare at her. "You and me are going to have a little talk," he decided. "You can leave your nieces and your son in here."

As Lily moved towards the back elevators, a grin still on her face, Gibbs glared at McGee. "Call Ducky," he ordered, before following the errant redhead.

He just caught Tony's comment as the elevator doors closed. "Is he really going to kill her?"


	8. Beverly Allitt

_Thanks to my beta Kristen! Warning: a little darkness ahead._

Chapter 8: Beverley Allitt

Jenny paced up and down in the confines of the elevator. She had just passed through the squad room to find Jethro's agents working hard, but there was no sign of Jethro himself or her errant sister. Her best guess was that he was trying to force her to admit to the bomb in her office again.

She wanted to find her sister for a more mundane reason. Planting a bomb at Bethesda had to be one of Lily's more stupid ideas in recent years and she was planning to make it very clear to her that she was in the wrong. Not that persuading Lily she should not have done something was easy; she would undoubtedly have a million and one excuses up her sleeve.

How could she do such a thing? She was already in trouble for the previous bomb and somehow she had got it into her fat head that another bomb on the same day was a good idea. And to top it all off, she had been in possession of Jasper, Camilla and Rose at the same time. She should have been looking after them, not putting them in harm's way.

Lily should never have left the Navy Yard with the twins. She had been present for the beginning of the argument between Jethro and herself, during which she had stated clearly that the twins were not to be used as bait. Yet Lily had ignored this completely and 'borrowed' her nieces. One of these days, her sister was going to learn the hard way to never disobey a direct order.

Although technically she hadn't disobeyed an order. Jenny had only barred Jethro from using the twins, not Lily.

Jenny sighed and ran a hand across her forehead. This was only going to lead to another shouting match, and she was already starting to see her sister's point of view before a single word had been exchanged. Not perhaps the best start.

The doors opened and she stepped out to Abby's lab. If Jethro and Lily were having a 'discussion', they would probably be in Autopsy. She might as well find out as much information as possible before she murdered Lily. And Abby always enjoyed having company. Maybe she ought to find a way to get the Goth out of the basement on a more regular basis?

"Jenny!" came the squeal of delight as she entered the lab. A dark blur crashed into her and she struggled to stay upright. She tried to hug the Goth back, but she was already bouncing back to her machines.

"Hello Abby," she replied.

"If you're looking for the silver haired fox, he's not here. And I haven't heard any screams coming from the direction of Autopsy, so Lily is probably safe," Abby continued. "And I have some information to give to them as well. You might be turning into Gibbs because I've only just found this out, and he always appears right when I have something for him, only this time he hasn't come but you have so maybe his superpowers are rubbing off on you."

Jenny smiled. Abby's logic was always a little strange, but it was amusing as well. "What have you found then?" she asked.

"Well, McGee's matrix of deaths was right. I found one of the drugs had been replaced with insulin."

Jenny mused for a moment. Perhaps it was a good thing she hadn't yet murdered Lily after all.

* * *

Ducky was rather glad to be out of his house for a few hours. Mother had somehow decided that she was suddenly capable of walking to the grocery store and did not need to wear any clothes for the trip. Short of locking her in the house, he was at his wits end. At least now she was with her nurse, who would hopefully have more luck than he had been having.

He had initially suspected, after conversing with Tony on the phone, that he would be required to patch Lily up. The redhead seemed to have been spectacularly irresponsible today, if he believed half of what Tony had told him. Blowing up Jenny's office seemed a little odd, as did planting a small bomb at Bethesda to steal some medical supplies. Still, her judgment might be slightly faulty in places, but she would have a good reason for doing everything.

Nevertheless, Jethro and Lily had appeared from the direction of the back elevator, both appearing to be in one piece. Naturally, Jethro was shooting deadly glares at the back of Lily's head, but the redhead was ignoring every single one. Ducky felt this was a good sign: if she was injured in any way, she would be glaring right back at him.

Abby had appeared a few minutes ago and given him a short report, which he had read carefully. Ziva had told him everything that had happened and all their suspicions. McGee had been tapping away at his keyboard, trying to connect any staff who had been present at a number of deaths. Only Jenny was not present, presumably having disappeared to deal with paperwork.

He stared at the pages in front of him again, before looking up and making sure he had everyone's full attention. There was no use in briefing everyone if half the people were not listening. He did not like to repeat his findings multiple times simply because people had not been paying attention the first time around.

"This reminds me of an old case in England," he began, noting how Lily instantly settled herself in Jethro's chair. "I was not connected to it in any way, but medical personnel were discussing it for years."

"Insulin deaths?" Abby asked.

He smiled at her. "Insulin makes a death appear to be natural causes. It is not routinely tested for after death and a high level could be natural. Unless suspicious circumstances surround the death, no one would take a second glance."

"There are definitely some fishy circumstances around these deaths," Tony pointed out.

"Precisely." Ducky become more serious. "Beverley Allitt was working as a nurse in a Lincolnshire hospital when she murdered four children with insulin or potassium overdoses back in the early nineties. The deaths were originally written off as natural causes until someone connected the dots and worked out that they had a murderer on their hands. Allitt was the only nurse on duty when all the attacks took place."

"That's horrible," Abby objected.

"It is. I believe she is serving a life sentence in an English jail for her crimes. But she did not only murder those four children. She also injected others, in an attempt to kill them."

"So there might be more potential victims out there?" Ziva checked.

"Some of these children may only have survived if they were transferred to another hospital. Others may have been resuscitated. The point is that your serial killer is not going to stop until he or she is caught."

* * *

Timothy McGee was not reassured by Ducky's tales of deadly nurses in England. He knew the chances of a serial killer working in a hospital were extremely low, but he still did not want to walk back into Bethesda knowing what he did now. He was going to get Abby to double check every drug someone tried to give him, even when he was on his deathbed, and only accept anything Ducky gave him.

What could turn someone so caring into someone so evil? It made no sense to him. Medical personnel were supposed to want to cure people, not kill. They swore to 'do no harm'. And how could anyone kill little babies? They were utterly defenseless and at the mercy of everyone else.

His eyes flicked over to where the twins were crawling all over Gibbs' desk. The boss was keeping his full attention on them. It was strange to see the usually gruff Marine babbling back to his children and playing little games. It was as though he was in another dimension where everything had been turned upside down. The twins were giggling and babbling, while trying to knock everything over. Gibbs wasn't even trying to pick things up, just make sure that they came to no harm.

Gibbs would never hurt his children, and from the time he had spent with Lily, she would not do such a thing either. She might pretend to have a flippant attitude to them, but she always seemed to catch them before they injured themselves.

Even McGee himself cared for the twins. It was nowhere near as much as Gibbs and the Director did, but he still looked out for them and was happy to keep an eye on them. He certainly did not want to see them get hurt. Taking them to the clinic, he had not been as aware of the danger as Lily had been. And yet she had trusted her skills and risked their lives.

She was an enigma.

"The doctor who was going to give the twins the injections must be the murderer," Tony argued, across the squad room. "What was his name again? Commander Kaye?"

"It does not have to be Commander Kaye," Ziva retorted. "Just because he had the vials does not mean he knew what was in them."

"You've been arguing against this whole case since the start," Tony countered. "First you thought it wasn't a case, and now you're arguing that our killer isn't our killer."

"I am pointed out that you are making a leap to judgment without any real evidence," Ziva shot back. "If I made that leap, you would be getting mad at me."

"Director," Tony began, turning to the redhead who appeared to have arrived out of nowhere. "Please tell Ziva that the doctor is our murderer."

The redhead ignored Tony and made a move towards her sister. "You had better start running because I'm going to kill you," she warned.

Lily did not even bat an eyelid, merely rolling her eyes from her position on Ziva's desk. "I've already owned up to the Bethesda bomb. I had nothing to do with the one in your office. And I'm sorry for borrowing the twins. I was only trying to help out."

"How was putting them in danger 'helping out'?" the Director demanded.

"I may have saved the lives of other babies," Lily offered. "You can tell them all about it when they're older."

The Director glared at her sister. "Stay out of trouble," she finally growled, before heading back upstairs.

"Boss?" Tony questioned.

"Gear up," Gibbs ordered. "We've got enough to hold Commander Kaye for a while."


	9. Commander Kaye

_Thanks to my beta Kristen! _

Chapter 9: Commander Kaye

Tony DiNozzo had not thought he would be back at Bethesda so quickly. After all, neither Gibbs nor Jenny had killed Lily yet, and Ziva still did not agree with him.

He doubted she would ever agree with him. Ziva was capable of arguing the hind leg off a donkey, even if she didn't understand the expression. She was also one of the most pig-headed people he had ever met, and that was including Gibbs in the equation. While Gibbs went by his gut, Ziva went on nothing. And while Gibbs' gut tended to be right, Ziva was known for being wrong.

Of course, he couldn't argue this aloud very well. Aggravating a crazy ninja Mossad chick who could kill a man with a paperclip in eighteen different ways was not the best idea he had ever had. He still toyed with her though, although he was careful not to cross her too much. He liked his limbs where they were.

He couldn't understand why she never threatened McGee. The Probie needed toughening up a great deal, but she was nice to him. She bought him coffee every now and then, and smiled in his direction. The most regular response he got out of her was a look that indicated she was plotting his imminent demise. And it would undeniably be extremely painful and drawn-out.

Who taught their daughter to be an assassin anyway? Daddy David must be insane. Although he had done a frighteningly good job of it, so perhaps he knew what he was doing. On the other hand, Ziva was his only child left, meaning he was not good at protecting his offspring. Still, he did not want to bump into Daddy David again. Once was definitely enough for him.

The doors to the Immunization Clinic swung open again and Tony loyally followed Gibbs into the waiting room. As before, the place was swarming with people. At least Lily and McGee were not here this time – Gibbs had decided it would be better if the redhead and the Probie remained behind during the arrest, on the off chance they needed to go undercover again. It still left three people to take down one doctor: an ex-Marine, an assassin, and an ex-cop. They could manage.

He glanced around for a few moments. The hole in the wall that had been present a few hours ago, courtesy of Lily and her explosives, had now been covered by a temporary block. Nothing appeared to be out of place any more.

"Commander Kaye," Gibbs called to the man across the room.

The Commander looked up from the file he was perusing. "Agent Gibbs," he replied. "How can I help you again?"

Gibbs reached his side first, and pulled the other man's hands behind his back. Deliberately keeping his voice loud, he announced, "You're under arrest."

"Whoa!" Kaye protested. "I haven't done anything! I'm innocent!"

"You can tell us all about it back at NCIS," Tony informed him.

Kaye cried out as Gibbs tightened the handcuffs. "Is that better?" the older man hissed.

* * *

Gibbs glared at the man sitting across the table from him in Interrogation. Commander Kaye had picked the wrong time to get on his nerves. Lily had been a constant thorn in his side all day, trying to push every single one of his buttons and create new ones. He had barely been able to resist the temptation of locking her in an Autopsy drawer and coming back for her later when they had been arguing in Ducky's domain earlier. And she didn't seem to realize how much she was aggravating him.

Although knowing her, she was well aware and had also figured out that her lack of a response was annoying him further.

How could Jenny and Lily be so similar and yet so different? Jenny was caring and gentle, although she was just as stubborn as he was. Lily seemed not to care about anyone but herself and her missions, even though her current mischief had nothing to do with her job. Neither of the sisters could be controlled, but Jenny could control herself. She didn't go around threatening to torture people and destroy everything they held precious, while Lily would happily ruin someone's life to cheer herself up.

He just wanted this day to be over. He wanted to return home with his children and his lover, relax for an evening, and possibly kill Lily to make everything better. The only flaw in his plan was that Jenny would not be happy if he killed her sister. At least the way things were going at the moment, it was becoming increasingly likely that Jenny would murder Lily before the day was out, thus keeping him out of trouble.

Jenny had always been capable of calming him down. She would snuggle up close to him, and whisper in his ear. Or her emerald eyes would twinkle at him, a warning that she was planning something mischievous of her own. He loved it when she did that, trusting her as much as he did. She was the only one who could keep the nightmares away, and even when they emerged from the darkest corners of his mind, she would be there for him. She didn't ask questions or judge him.

Oddly enough, the sisters were alike in that manner. Lily never bought up Shannon and Kelly to hurt him, although it probably had something to do with losing her own husband. The two of them had a silent pact to never mention the sadness in their own lives. They simply needled each other about everything else.

"I didn't do anything!" Kaye protested again. It was pretty much all he had said since DiNozzo had dragged him into Interrogation and told him to wait.

"You murdered twelve children and tried to kill another two today," Gibbs growled. There was no need to mention that the two children in question were his own.

"What?!" Kaye looked completely shocked.

Gibbs could see the wheels turning in his head. He leant back in his chair, letting the other man come up with his line of defense.

"Okay." Kaye was ready. "That makes some scary kind of sense. Everyone jokes that I'm cursed! Babies have a nasty habit of dying after I've given them jabs, but I've got nothing to do with it! I don't have any children of my own and I definitely don't have any enemies. And on top of that, I've been saving more children than I've lost! They go into cardiac arrest and I end up resuscitating them!"

Gibbs considered this new information. This could change their avenue of investigation…

* * *

Lily waited patiently in Observation. She had watched the entire interview – if she could term it an interview – and was currently keeping her thoughts to herself.

Commander Kaye had not set off any internal alarms when she had met him a few hours ago. She had actually been tempted to leave the vials, let her nieces be injected, and then sneak back into Bethesda at night and steal every vial she could get her hands on. The fact that she had gone along with her original plan was the only reason her nieces were not in Bethesda themselves. It did not cheer her up.

But still, she did not see any danger about him. He did not appear to be mad in any way, and her definition of mad was wider than most people used. It had to be, considering the people she worked with. And she was used to running into madmen who wanted to end the world for one reason or another… no, that was another spy she had seen in a movie recently. But her point still stood: Commander James Kaye did not even register as a blip on her radar.

She was always more interested in what others thought. LJ seemed to be considering Kaye's defense, judging by the way he was leaning back in his chair. Tony and Ziva, standing next to her, were bristling with anger at his weak defense. Presumably, they felt LJ should be applying more pressure to break the doctor. She was more worried about catching the real culprit though.

In the meantime, she was happy to let the others react to the interview first. It made her life more interesting and fun, as well as giving her further insight into the people she occasionally worked with. If she could predict their next move, it was easier to draw them into a mind game.

LJ rose quickly from his chair and left the room; she was willing to put a lot of money on him coming into Observation next. She briefly wondered if she could steal his coffee before quashing the thought. She was in enough trouble with him at the moment as it was. Much as stealing his coffee would cheer her up, he might finally snap and act on some of his threats. Although she did like the idea of sleeping in an Autopsy drawer overnight.

The door swung open and LJ entered. "Looks like Munchausen's by Proxy, boss," Tony immediately piped up.

From the look on Ziva's face, she had no idea what her partner had just said.

"Someone puts someone else in danger, usually a child, in order to save them and thus look good," Lily explained. "Or a common example is a mother making her child ill so that everyone rallies round and supports her. There's very little evidence that it actually exists. Personally, I don't believe in it."

"But it fits!" Tony whined.

LJ shook his head. "Kaye is innocent," he declared.

Lily felt obliged to point out the other half of the statement. "Which means we still have a child killer somewhere in Bethesda."


	10. Bethesda Return

_Thanks to my beta Kristen! Special thanks to SJ for reminding me to post..._

Chapter 10: Bethesda Return

Ziva David was getting fed up of entering Bethesda. This was her third time today! She hoped she would not be back in here for a long while after this. With a serious amount of luck, no one would be injured in the next few months. Although they were perhaps not that lucky with Lily around.

She remembered something Gibbs had once said in relation to her: Lily was a hurricane of chaos and destruction, leaving pain and death in her wake. It sounded very true. And Lily never looked behind her to see the trail of devastation that she left.

Someone would have to show her the error of her ways soon. Except Lily would have to be coming up to her retirement at some point. Jenny had mentioned that Lily had joined the CIA straight out of college, and while Ziva was not sure how many years were required for a CIA pension, Lily had to have put in over twenty years of hard work. Maybe the higher-ups would push her behind a desk soon, allowing her to exercise her mind but not go on active duty. It would break Lily's heart, but considering the messes she created, it would be a good idea.

Or maybe Lily would just get bored one day and decide, like Hollis Mann, that a warm beach somewhere sounded nice. She could even go to Hawaii and harass the ex-Colonel. It would keep Lily happy, and keep her occupied as well.

On the other hand, Lily probably expected to die in the field, at the conclusion of some grand mind game she had constructed. She certainly did not seem to accept that her body was getting older and she could not keep up her job for the rest of her life. At some point, she would have to start taking things easy.

Actually, Lily reminded her of Gibbs. The boss refused to accept that he was getting older too. He squinted rather than wear reading glasses, he showed no signs of spending the rest of his days behind a desk, and he could still take down suspects as though he was a much younger man.

There were other scary similarities between them than Ziva knew she could never voice. They both had a weakness for coffee, they were both incredibly stubborn, and they both would do anything to keep Jenny safe. They were both natural leaders, although Lily did not usually exercise her ability to control a crowd, and they could both interrogate someone extremely well. They even worked well together, when they were not bickering and squabbling over every little thing that they possibly could.

If she ever mentioned their similarities, she knew they would both give her dark glares. Neither of them would accept the truth, although there was always the possibility that they would think about it for a few days. But they were both stuck in their ways and would refuse to change a thing.

She entered the clinic again and caught the sympathetic look on the receptionist's face. Evidently, she felt that being forced to enter the same waiting room on numerous occasions was a horrible experience. And she was right: the noise level seemed to have increased since her last visit and children were running around the place. A young boy crashed into her legs, extracted himself, and disappeared in the blink of an eyelid. Even Gibbs looked dismayed at the sheer number of people present.

And somehow they had to talk to the staff about Commander Kaye. It was highly unlikely they would even open up about him, considering that the agents had arrested him in full view of everyone. At least they had McGee with them this time and he could hopefully charm answers out of some people.

If it wasn't Kaye, who was it?

Ziva decided to start with the receptionist. The poor woman would probably know more about what happened in this place than anyone else. And she seemed to have some sympathy towards them, compared to the outright hostile glares that the doctors were shooting at the agents. They were only doing their jobs!

"Ziva David," she introduced herself.

"Mary Abbot," came the reply. "I think you guys have managed to get really confused."

"And what do you mean by that?" Ziva inquired, keeping her lid on her temper.

Mary sat down in her chair and gestured to Ziva that she should perch on the desk. "James Kaye would not blow up our waiting room! Besides, I thought you had ruled it was a gas leak."

"That has yet to be determined," Ziva lied. She knew Lily had been responsible for it, but she couldn't exactly admit it to this lady. "And we have not arrested him for the explosion."

"Then what?" Mary looked concerned.

"Murder," she replied. "We believe he has murdered twelve babies in the last two years."

"But… but that's impossible!" Mary spluttered. "Commander Kaye cares for these children! We've joked that he's cursed, but we never meant anything by it."

"We have heard those rumors as well," Ziva confirmed. "But we are taking this much more seriously. We found that some drugs had been switched over earlier today. If the babies had been injected with them, they would be very ill right now."

"That can't be true," Mary denied. "He cares for children and he's good at his job."

"Is there anyone who might want to hurt his career?"

"No." Mary did not even need a second to think about it. "Everyone loves James. He's witty and refuses to step on anyone's toes."

"Can you think of anything that may help us?" Ziva was still being as polite as possible.

This time, the receptionist took her time. "One of the nurses has a bit of a crush on him. We discuss it every now and again."

"Happen to have a name?"

* * *

Timothy McGee was watching a master at work. Gibbs was the best at interrogating people, especially when they did not realize they were being interrogated.

Ziva had passed along the information about Ryan Tucker, before leaving to continue talking to the receptionist. If she could provide any additional information, they would gladly take it. For the moment, their case seemed to be coming together.

Tucker was happily chatting away to Gibbs about how he felt Kaye was not responsible for the explosion earlier. McGee was starting to be thankful that everyone had attributed their arrival to the bomb. If Tucker was their man, he would believe they were here for one reason, when in reality they had cottoned on to his killing spree. And they did not want him to panic. There were a great number of children around.

Another child crashed into his legs and McGee stifled a groan. None of these personnel seemed to have any control over their children. It was getting beyond annoying. It definitely hadn't been as bad as this when he had been with Lily, and Lily had controlled her son, although Jasper did not need to be controlled. The boy was well-behaved and polite, unlike these little feral monsters.

He was a little worried that Gibbs might decide to force everyone to sit down and behave. He firmly believed that his boss could do that: control a room without even raising his voice. He had seen him do it before and it would make their jobs at lot easier.

Although, there might actually be reason to his madness. With the waiting room in chaos, other staff members could not overhear any discussions. There was no need to talk to everyone in separate rooms and keep them apart before they were questioned; it was simply impossible to talk about the arrival of federal agents for the third time in a few hours with this noise level. The only way to do it would involve shouting as loud as was physically possible and it would immediately raise a red flag to the investigators.

Nevertheless, he was going to need a nice amount of aspirin after this. If they were lucky, he would settle down in his tranquil apartment at the end of today, take a few pills to make his headache disappear and curl up with a good book. There was no way he could write tonight: he wasn't calm enough. And he would need to focus, something that was difficult to do with a headache.

"Is Commander Kaye in any kind of trouble?" Gibbs asked. "Money worries, an ex hanging around, something like that?"

It was an odd question, but McGee understood what Gibbs was fishing for. While Tucker would see it as just another routine question, Gibbs was looking to see how much information the nurse had about Kaye. If he could provide a detailed answer, it would confirm all their suspicions.

"He inherited some money last year," Tucker replied. "So I don't think he was any money issues. He doesn't talk about his personal life so I don't know about that."

That definitely sounded suspicious. People didn't generally discuss inheritances in McGee's experience.

"What do you think of Kaye as a doctor?" Gibbs continued.

"He's a great guy." Tucker's face lit up. "He's great at his job, saves lots of children."

Gibbs nodded infinitesimally. "We need you to come down to the Navy Yard," he told the nurse. "You can either come quietly or we'll arrest you in front of your co-workers."

It didn't look as though Gibbs was jumping to conclusions now. McGee could only hope they had the right man this time.


	11. Dada

_Thanks to my beta Kristen! There's an epilogue after this... And don't say I don't give you fluff._

Chapter 11: Dada

Ziva David glared at the man sitting opposite her. This time, Gibbs had allowed her to conduct the Interrogation, although he had warned her not to injure the man. He did not want to case thrown out of court on a technicality.

Although the way Gibbs and Jenny were stalking around, Tucker was not likely to make it to court. No one threatened the twins and got away with it. With the possible exception of Lily, but she did not count because she did not mean it. It was strangely surprising that Lily had not demanded to perform the interrogation herself. After all, she had put the twins in harm's way and surely she felt she had to redeem herself?

Unless she refused to accept that she had done anything wrong at all, in which case she was more likely to just stab Tucker when she next ran into him. The latter explanation seemed far more probable. If she could get Tucker to crack, Lily would intervene before he made it to the cells. The man would be looking over his shoulder for years.

She glared at him again. How could he kill such innocent children? Abby had managed to pull his fingerprints from the vials Lily had stolen and they should not have been present. Tucker was not even supposed to be on duty at the time of the incident, which meant he would have to have a very good reason ready for his lawyer. If he ever got a lawyer. Gibbs was trying to come up with some way to tie him to terrorism and get him sent to Gitmo for placing the twins in danger. Knowing Jenny's diplomacy skills, there was a strong chance they would find a way to do it.

Not that Ziva would stop them or even cared. Tucker deserved everything they could throw at him. She had heard tales of child killers being attacked by other prisoners in American prisons and hoped Tucker would be attacked too. Killing children was a cowardly thing to do. They could not stand up for themselves, not protect themselves in any way. They relied on adults to take care of them. Tucker was in a position where he should have been looking after children, which only made his crime worse.

"Why did you do it?" she demanded, slamming her hand down on the table.

Tucker jumped. "I didn't do anything wrong," he whined.

"You killed innocent babies," she yelled at him. "You are nothing more than a coward."

"Kaye was supposed to save them!" he shouted back, losing control. "He's a good doctor. Saving the other children made him invaluable to the hospital. They promoted him. He saved more children than those who died because he is such a great doctor!"

She stared at him. This man was truly insane. "But you are responsible for the deaths of at least twelve children," she pointed out.

He smiled. "A small price to pay for the greater good. People see Kaye for what he is now. I'm not the only one who sees his skills."

Ziva stood up abruptly and left. She did not want to be in a room with this monster for a second longer.

* * *

Ducky sighed as he considered the ways things had gone. He had tried to deal with some paperwork in Autopsy, but had been unable to work due to a strange feeling of someone being nearby. After a quick check of the morgue drawers, he had found Lily curled up inside one of them. She claimed to be having a nap, but the fact someone had locked her in from the outside discounted that slightly.

He had then left in order to find Jethro and point out that he couldn't change Lily by locking her inside a morgue drawer. Jethro had been at his desk, playing with his children, and had refused to accept the possibility that he might have been in some way responsible for anything that happened to Lily. He had also bought up the idea of Lily 'just taking a nap'.

Someone really needed to bash their heads together. Normally that someone was Jenny, but she was too busy fuming at Lily to pay attention to the fight that was brewing between her NCIS agent and a certain CIA agent.

And it really did not help that Lily was refusing to own up to the bomb in Jenny's office. Ducky was starting to come round to her side. She was extremely persistent in repeating her claim, she was not likely to set off two bombs in one day, and she was incredibly unlikely to do anything that might harm her sister. Not to mention that Lily usually owned up immediately when she had done something she considered to be spectacular. It simply did not fit in with her world view.

This, of course, left the worrying thought that someone else had blown up Jenny's office, but he did not have too much time to ponder it. Lily had shown up in the squad room, Abby by her side, and they had proceeded to borrow the twins. Whereas Abby was being careful with them and making sure she did not leave Jethro's sight, Lily was attempting to smuggle them out of the squad room, much to Jethro's dismay. The redhead never seemed to learn from her previous actions.

"Why would anyone kill babies?" McGee wondered aloud.

Ducky guessed the question might be directed at him. "That is a very complex question," he began. "Most killers – people who have killed other adults – tend to act hastily. They either carry an attack too far, do something on the spur of a moment, or commit something that is almost accidental in nature. A small minority of killers plan their attack or attacks out carefully. These are the ones which we have to work hard to catch. Sometimes they manage to slide their killings under the radar. In cases of killing children, it seems they believe they are powerful."

"So basically they're insane," Lily piped up, not looking up from her attempt to drop Camilla down the back of the filing cabinet.

"I am sure that will be his defense," Ducky admitted.

"How's the attempt at sending him to Gitmo going, boss?" Tony asked.

Jethro merely growled, before intercepting Camilla and glaring at Lily. Nothing new there then.

* * *

Abby was happy to be given Camilla back. Lily's antics with the twins were likely to end with someone being hurt, even though that person was most likely to be Lily herself when Mommy and Daddy ripped her to pieces.

She was only having fun with them! The twins were content and babbling away, as usual, none the worse for wear. Lily wouldn't actually hurt them in any way. She loved them because they were her nieces. Gibbs was wrong when he tried to keep Lily in line.

She was determined to teach the twins how to speak. After the horror of finding out that a serial killer had been operating at Bethesda for so long, she wanted to relax. And the babies had been put in danger so she had to make sure that they were not suffering any lasting damage. Maybe she should persuade Ducky to check them over again. He might have missed something in the last five checks she had forced him to carry out.

You could never be too careful with babies. Everything you did around them would have an effect on them as they grew up, or so she believed. And these children already had one crazy family. Their father was practically psychic and would be over-protective, their mother was a diplomat and would smother them in affection, and they had an aunt who would rather die than let anything happen to them.

Not to mention their extended family. Tony was already trying to get them to watch movies, although it was clear they were not interested in explosions on a screen, which might be a good thing with Lily as their aunt. Ziva was trying to teach them little methods of self-defense, even though they did not understand what it was and could not carry out any of the moves. Ducky told them long stories about his childhood in Scotland. McGee read parts of his Gemcity novels to them, using them as a little audience and asking their opinions at various stages. She herself tried to explain long complex scientific terms to them. Even Palmer had been caught trying to explain how the digestive system worked, just before an important exam.

She lowered her head so that she was face to face with Rose, and tried again. "Daddy," she enunciated clearly. "Daddy." She pointed at Gibbs.

"Don't bother," Gibbs warned, taking a sip from his coffee. "They haven't started making sense yet."

"But Gibbs!" she objected. "They're six months old! We have to get sense out of them, or how are we supposed to know what they want?"

Gibbs chuckled. "Once they start speaking, you'll only want them to stop," he pointed out. "Young children do not understand the term 'no'."

"Jasper understood it at nine months old," Lily offered from across the squad room.

"You weren't exactly around," Gibbs shot back.

"He's an angel," she smiled.

"Where is your son anyway?" Gibbs checked, suddenly suspicious.

"Spending some time with Jenny," she remarked. "I'm not going to stop him. We were supposed to spend today at the zoo."

"Daddy," Abby tried again, knowing full well that Gibbs and Lily would start screaming at each other in a minute. "Daddy."

"Dadadadadadadadadada," Rose pronounced, a slight grin on her face.

From her spot on Gibbs' desk, Camilla joined in without any prompting. "Dadadadadadada."

Abby screamed with delight.


	12. Epilogue

_Thanks to my beta Kristen! Sorry for the delay - Internet went down. This Is Not Happening should start to appear soon._

Chapter 12: Epilogue

Gibbs did not look up as his agents left the squad room. He was too engrossed with playing with his children. Camilla and Rose had decided they liked repeating "Dada" as much as possible, leaving him with a big grin on his face.

He didn't care what it made his team think of him. He was just so proud that they were speaking. He had already raced up the stairs and pulled Jenny out of a conference room she was using as her office so that she could hear them speak. The laughter of DiNozzo had rung in his ears the entire way. Fortunately, Lily had decided to be an angel for once and had delivered the requisite headslap.

He was so proud of them, to the extent that he had stopped working on his report and played with them for the last few hours. They were starting to fall asleep now and he would let them rest. In a few days, he was going to be desperate for them to start speaking other words.

Lily reappeared in the squad room, her son fast asleep in her arms. She appeared to be struggling slightly under the nine year old's weight, but she did not ask for help. He knew she would consider it as sign of weakness so he did not offer to assist her, knowing she would immediately refuse.

All in all, he felt it had been a good day. Although Lily had been a thorough nuisance, it had been rectified by the catching of a serial killer and his children speaking for the first time. He could put up with twenty Lily's for that.

* * *

Jenny stood in the elevator, holding Rose. Her little daughter had finally dropped off to sleep. The party with her was definitely something she had never thought she would see – Gibbs had Camilla curled up on his shoulder, and Lily was carrying her own son. It made her sad to think she was older than before, now responsible for her own children, but the love she felt for them eclipsed that. For all of them. Even Lily.

She shifted Rose slightly and placed a hand on Lily's free shoulder. It was too late and she was too tired to fight at the moment. Lily leant back ever so slightly, showing she was thankful for the comfort without having to say anything that might wake any of the children up. She also knew that they would all be crowding into Lily's small apartment tonight.

Jenny decided she really needed to go house-hunting. This was getting ridiculous. She might have been spending time at Gibbs' recently, but almost everything was set up at Lily's. And she was not ready to live with Gibbs full time. They both needed their own space to retreat to, even if they did spend most of their time outside the agency together.

"I swear I didn't have anything to do with the bomb in your office," Lily muttered, just loud enough for her to hear. "I swear on Jasper's life. And I promise that I'm going to hunt down whoever really did it and make them pay."

Jenny let her eyes close for a brief second as the elevator arrived at their destination and the doors opened. If Lily really hadn't been responsible for the explosion, then who was?

THE END…


End file.
